Don't leave me
by Bookworm813
Summary: This is just another one of those Nathaniel survives stories. BartxNat. This is my first story so give it a chance and if it sucks I'm sorry. read and review and I'll try and make it less sucky. thanks!
1. Chapter 1

"Say hello to Kitty for me." No. Just no. There were too many things I needed to say to him. He wasn't getting off that easy! I camped his mouth shut. I could feel him slipping away, his eyes closing. I knew I couldn't do anything more from this body. I pulled myself out away from his conciseness to which I had been previously bonded with, and transformed into a curl of smoke. I rushed out of his mouth (disgusting, I know, but he was going to be in debt to me for the rest of his life after this, and I intended to make that last for more than a few measly minuets.)

Once outside his body I took my usual form of Ptolemy. Nat promptly collapsed into my arms.

"Your such a little princes." I muttered. That was when it dawned on me that now was not the time to be looking after Nathaniel, there was still the matter of a certain hybrid running amuck. Dropping Nathaniel, I picked up the staff, all I had to do was snap it. I knew I wouldn't survive, but hey, I had a good run. I looked down at Nat. He may survive. It wasn't likely, but it was a chance. Nouda was still lurking somewhere. It was now or never. I brought the staff down hard on my knee. In a blinding flash it splintered into billions of pieces. I collapsed onto the ground beside my master. I threw shields up around us (not that it would do much good of corse. It was merely survival instincts kicking in at the last minuet. What can I say? I'm not too keen on the idea of dyeing.)

I watched as the heavy iron building collapsed around us. I must say, I never thought it would end like this. Sacrificing myself? And for what? Nat wasn't likely to survive either way. What the sense in going down with him? Whatever the reason, there was no doubt in my mind that I was sacrificing myself for something. The only question left was for what. (As well as why, how, and is there a god, and if so, which one? Why dyeing doesn't come with a manual, I'll never know.)

"Goodbye Natty boy. We had a good run. See ya on the other side, I guess." I wasn't one for sappy moments, and this was turning into one of them, so, finding myself glad no one (at least no one conscious) had been around to hear that, I simply laid back, closed my eyes, and waited for deaths cold embrace.

It was only after five minuets of waiting that I began to realize something was up. (trust me on this, it dose not take five minuets for a building to collapse, a specially one built by magicians.) I opened my eyes and looked up. I was shock to see that somehow, my feeble shields had held! Iron beams pressed against the shimmering iridescent bubble, and yet by some miracle, the tiny dome of protection hadn't collapsed. I knew that it wouldn't hold forever, but it might buy me enough time to find a way out of this mess.

After wracking my brains for a good three minuets of so, I had come up with a rather pathetic, kinda obvious, semi barbaric, poor excuse for a plan.

Lets just blast a big hole in the hundred tons of rubble pining us down like butterflies in a collectors tray! Like I said, not my most clever plan, but hey, I'm not going for an award here. I'm trying to save our, (specifically my) necks! if it fails, we would die either way. What's the harm

I put all my remaining power into a detonation. Here goes nothing, I thought. I sent the blast upwards, creating a large hole in the rubble above us. Grabbing Nat and slinging him over my shoulder I flew out via the newly made gap in the remains of what was once the glass palace. I could feel the cold sting of iron all around me. It pressed against me until I thought I would collapse into a puddle of slime.

Finally, we made it out. I fell to to my knees, weary to the bone. Nathaniel slid of my shoulder and landed with a thud atop the mounds of glass and iron. That was when two things occurred to me.

1. I needed to get much farther away from this place to escape all the iron. I could feel it sapping at my already diminished strength.

2. Nat was in bad shape. He needed help, fast.

I decided that before I went through all the trouble of finding him a hospital, I should make sure he wasn't already gone. Humans were weak, their lives as easy to snuff out as a candle flame. I shifted his head into my lap and took stock of his numerous injures. Aside from the gash in his side, he wasn't to bad off. If he died, it would be from that wound. After checking for a pulse, (which he had, just in case your particularly thick, even for a human) I lifted him up again and set out to remedy both predicaments.

By the time I finally found a hospital, Nat was in bad shape. His breathing was shallow and raspy, and blood trailed from the corner of his mouth.

"Common Nat. Hold in just a little longer. Like I said before, it's not that bad. Your gunna be okay." I muttered as we went along.

By the time we reached the hospital I had run out of empty reassurance. I marched in and straight up to the preppy, blond, receptionist and demanded immediate care. The last thing I saw after that was her heavily made up eyes widen, her face surrounded by the black blotches that had begun to forum in the edges of my vision.


	2. Chapter 2

Kitty walked briskly down the grubby sidewalk, staring straight ahead, the day's news paper in her hand. The headlines read "John Mandrake, famous magician found at local hospital" it went on to say how he heroically saved London, and quite possibly the world, but that wasn't the part Kitty cared about. There was also a fleeting mention of the demon who had brought him in. They were both alive, if barely.

And so this is why Kitty found herself standing at the large doors baring the hospital shut. All she had to do was go in.

It still baffled her from time to time how she got herself into this mess. She had spent a good portion of her life hating magicians, and John Mandrake had quite possibly been one of her least favorites. And so it wasn't Mandrake she came to see, but the boy, Nathaniel, who was hidden behind the mask of the cold and ruthless politician. She had come to see Nathaniel as an ally, or perhaps even a friend.

That, she supposed, was the cause for her hesitation. Everyone she had ever considered a friend was injured, killed, or a traitor. Now two people she had come to care for were in bad shape. She tried to block out the tiny fear that insisted upon making itself known.

What if they died in there? What if she got her hopes up, only to have them come crashing down?

She shifted her shoulders back and pushed away her concern. If they died they died, her worrying about it wouldn't change a thing, and she would never know either way if she didn't go in. So with that in mind, she pushed open the doors and walked purposefully up to the receptionist. The young blond nurse led Kitty to a small whitewashed room at the end of a long, bleak, plain hallway.

After fulfilling her obligation, the nurse left, leaving Kitty to enter alone. She had made up her mind and would waste no more time loitering outside the door. With that thought she confidently crossed the threshold and stroud up to the single bed in the center of the room. To her surprise, another figure already sat beside the bed on a small plastic chair.

"Bartimaeus?" He jumped up and whirled around to face her.

"Hello Kitty"

"What are you doing hear?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Yes but you didn't, and I asked you first." The djinn sighed.

"After saving his worthless butt," he muttered, gesturing to Nathaniel, "I brought him here. I can't leave until the little brat wakes up and dismisses me, or dies. That last one is always a possibility." His nonchalant tone didn't matched the panicky look in his dark brown eyes.

Kitty nodded and pulled up a chair and parked it beside Nathaniel's bed, preparing for what she was beginning to realize would be a very long wait.


	3. Chapter 3

"Common Nat" I whispered to the unconscious boy lying on the bed. He looked so small, lying defenseless in a hospital room. "Common Natty boy, wake up. I need to be dismissed over here." I gently shook his shoulder. "God damn it Nat just wake up!" I was rather frustrated at the moment. I went through all the trouble of getting him here, he was not allowed to just slip away.

Through my frustration and fear, a little voice in the back of my mind (Not literally, mind you I'm perfectly sane) nagged at me with the same, infuriating question. Why did I care?

Luckily for me that was when Kitty showed up. The girl had hardly been in the room a full 8 minuets before she turned her sharp, curious eyes on me.

"How did you two survive?" I shrugged.

"I had to save his sorry butt, no surprise there."

"Why did you do it?" (Same thing I had been asking myself sense I had woken up in this god forsaken hospital. How I was beginning to hate that question)

"Mostly saving myself really." I lied smoothly. She cast me a dubious look before turning away. The silence grew to be uncomfortable after a while, so I was thankful beyond belief when Nathaniel gave a quite groan and began struggling in the bed. I jumped to my feet.

"I'll go fetch the nurse" I said before making a hasty exit.

I promptly fetched the nurse, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her into the now slightly crowded room. Nathaniel was now thrashing wildly. The nurse was off no help. She stood, shocked and sputtering in the doorway.

"Well do something! Shut the kid up!" I shouted at her.

"I-I-I'm j-just a volunteer s-sir. Y-y-you see because o-of the d-demon hybrid thing t-t-they were running low o-on nurses and I t-thought..." I cut off her hasty, stumbling rant.

"Yes you thought you could help!" I spat angrily "well then start helping missy! Do something!" By now the girl was practically in tears. Nathaniel's screams were getting louder by the minuet.

"Go fetch someone who actually works here!" Kitty shouted to the girl huddled in the doorframe. The young nurse promptly scampered off, leaving us with a panicking patient. Kitty was trying to pin the falling boy down before anyone got hurt.

"Well," I quipped cheerfully, "this is the most movement I've seen out of him than I've seen sense the explosion!" Kitty glared at me.

"Bartimaeus! Get your but over here and help me! Now!" If looks could killed I would be six feet under. I walked over to the bed and brushed Kitty's arms away. Grabbing Nathaniel, I sat on the edge of the bed. I pulled him into my lap and wrapped my arms around him and restrained his flailing limbs against my chest. Slowly the shouting turned to hiccuping sobs and the struggling ceased.

"There we go." I whispered into his hair. His cheek was pressed up into the crook of my neck, I could feel cold tears spilling out of his eyes and down his face. "Nightmare Natty boy?" I asked. With a sigh the tears stopped flowing and he buried his face deeper into my neck.

Kitty shot me an amused glance.

"What?" I muttered, "I had to shut him up somehow!"

"Sure. Sure," she said distractedly before busying herself with the hem of her shirt. "I'll go find where that nurse got to" she said before leaving.

The boy stirred again, but this time it was deliberate, if rather groggy movement. He reached up and rubbed at his eyes. His hand dropped back to his side and his eyes fluttered opened.

"Bartimaeus?" He asked, his voice thick with sleep.

"You sure took your sweet time waking up. Some of us need to be dismissed over here."

"You want to be dismissed?" He asked quietly.

"Yea pretty much"

"I will, just not... Just not yet." He yawned.

"Figures" I muttered, "well on that note, I better go find Kitty..."

"No! Please don't. Please don't leave me." He closed his eyes and promptly feel asleep. I laid him back down in the bed.

"Well, I don't have much else to do." I said and sat down beside the bed again. The things I do for my idiot master.


	4. Chapter 4

Nathaniel sat up unsteadily. Sleep weighed down his limbs, making movement a strenuous task. He reached up to rub the sleep from his eyes and was surprised to find his cheeks wet, as though he had been crying.

Vague memories drifted through his consciousness, disappearing before he could grasp the images. One reoccurring figure drifting through his muddled mind was Bartimaeus.

Oh! Now memories came rushing back into Nathaniel's head. The explosion and attempting to dismiss his servant came through clearly. The rest of the memories were muddled and distant, as if they were something witnessed from far away. Words of reassurance whispered into Nathaniel's ear echoed through his mind. He distantly remembered someone holding him, banishing his dark, twisted nightmares, and calming his screams.

Blinking the remaining sleep from his eyes, Nathaniel took in his surroundings for the first time. The sight was not a specially appealing. He found himself in a barren hospital room. Nothing remarkable at all. His eyes then fell opinion the figure who sat, lost in thought, by his bedside.

"Bartimaeus?" He asked softly, his voice hoarse and scratchy from lack of use. The spirit jolted in the small plastic chair and turned to face his master.

"Nat!" He yelped, startled.

"Oh god I feel awful" Nathaniel groaned.

"You look it too." the spirit shot back mockingly. Nathaniel chose to ignore that comment. he had bigger things on his slowly recovering mind.

"What happened? How did I get here? Also, it may be helpful to know exactly where 'here' is."

"Well for starters, I... um... separated myself from you, and saved your sorry butt! You got here because I, being the wonderful and magnificent creature I am, decided to show, as disgusting as this next bit sounds, mercy. And for the final bit, 'here' is the nearest hospital I could find."

"Oh..."

"Yea..." Having each run out off things to say, they fell into a moment of awkward silence. Bartimaeus cleared his throat. "So... Kitty's here. I'll go fetch her, and a doctor, and some food." Now he was just making excuses to leave Nathaniel thought bitterly. Nathaniel shot him a menacing look as the demon hurried out the door, shooting him a smirk and a wink just before exiting the room.

"That damned demon." Nathaniel muttered for no reason in particular. It did make him feel somewhat better though and he laid back against the pillows to await the doctor.

A quick check in with the doctor and a heated argument later, Nathaniel was walking down the street with Kitty and Bartimaeus, headed home.

"I can not believe you!" Kitty muttered darkly. "Why would you threaten your doctor? There was no valid reason for you to tell him that you would send demons to kill him if he didn't let you leave! When the doctor says your not ready, YOUR NOT READY!"

"I feel fine, and I'm not going to lay around and stare at the ceiling all day! I have things to do!" Kitty continued muttering under her breath. He did, however, catch the words stupid, pompous, moronic, and something along the lines of 'damn you'. Kitty went home to her apartment, ignoring Nathaniel's offers to stay with him in his house.

"It's probably for the best. You two would have murdered each other in the first 10 minuets, maybe even less." Bartimaeus quipped, cheerfully adding his unwanted opinion. "Why did you even offer," he continued. "Dose little Nat not like being all alone in your big scary house? Are you scared off the dark little boy?" A nasty grin had spread across his face, and his eyes glimmered with a mischievous light. Nathaniel sputtered with indignation.

"Why would you even think such a thing, foul demon!"

"Oh please, the way you were sobbing back at the hospital. You begged me to keep you company. Guess your not so tough after all Natty boy. Just one little nightmare was all it took to have you balling like a baby!"

Nathaniel could feel the color rising to his cheeks and ears. He wanted to deny it, but he remembered the water he had felt on his face when he woke up. He stormed off in the direction of his home, the demon's words mocked him.

"Don't worry Nat!" He heard the foul creature call out from behind him. "You've always got me!" Nathaniel briefly considered dismissing him, but decided against it. 'Thats just what the creature wants,' he thought 'I'm only keeping it here to make it suffer' but even in his own mind, the words rung hollow.


End file.
